1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an information display control apparatus, a server, a recording medium which records a program and a program each having a function to search for an example sentence.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, what is known is an information display control apparatus such as an electronic dictionary, an electronic book and the like incorporating therein several kinds of dictionary databases (hereafter, database will be referred to as “DB”) such as a Japanese dictionary, an English-Japanese dictionary, a Japanese-English dictionary, an English-English dictionary and the like. Such electronic dictionary and the like comprises various types of functions such as a function for searching for an entry word and the like. As one function among these functions, there is an example sentence searching function.
For example, an English-Japanese dictionary stores an entry word “look” and explanation information of the entry word “look” so as to relate each other, and further stores a large number of example sentences in which “look” is used. The example sentence searching function is a function for searching for an example sentence included in this dictionary DB and for displaying it.
Further, in order to make it possible to efficiently search for information which a user desires, some types of the electronic dictionaries comprises the so-called jump function. This jump function is a function as described below. That is, after explanation information corresponding to an entry word conforming to letters inputted by a user is displayed, when the user assigns a word in the explanation information (hereafter, it is accordingly referred to as “jump origin”), an entry word conforming to the assigned word is re-searched for, and explanation information corresponding to the entry word (hereafter, it is accordingly referred to as “jump destination”) is displayed.
These days, an electronic dictionary of, what we call, a full contents type in which whole contents of paper dictionary are computerized and stored, stores a large number of example sentences. Therefore, when a user searches for an example sentence, a lot of example sentences are displayed on a display screen at once. Accordingly, it is very complicated because the user needs to move (to scroll or the like) several pages to search for the desired example sentence. In particular, these days, an electronic dictionary comprises a function called a plural dictionary searching function, for searching cross-sectionally a plurality of dictionaries and for displaying an example sentence based on the search result. In the case of the plural dictionary searching function, since an example sentence is extracted from various types of dictionary DBs to be displayed, there are even more example sentences to be displayed compared to the case of extracting from one dictionary DB, and thereby searching for a desired example sentence becomes more and more difficult.
Further, when an example sentence, a phrase or a compound word is to be searched for, there is a case where after a list of example sentences is displayed by inputting a letter string to be searched for, it is necessary to return to an inputting screen to re-search for an example sentence, a phrase or a compound word with an additional word inputted to the word that has been already inputted. Thereby, it is complicated and inconvenient.
Further, in the conventional jump function, what can be assigned as a jump origin is limited to only one word, and therefore a plurality of words cannot be selected. Accordingly, even though a user wants to assign a plurality of words such as a phrase or the like for searching for an example sentence, he/she can only assign one word, and thereby it is extremely inconvenient.